Researchers find that dogs, like humans, appear to have memories linked to specific times and placesDogs can remember what their owners have been up to, say researchers probing the nature of canine memory.A team from Hungary have discovered that dogs are able to recall their owner’s actions, even when they were not specifically instructed to do so, suggesting that dogs, like humans, have what is known as “episodic memory” – memories linked to specific times and places. Continue reading...

Archaeologists discover huts, tools and 15 huge graves dating from first dynasty period in Sohag provinceEgypt has unearthed a city more than 7,000 years old and a cemetery dating back to its first dynasty in the southern province of Sohag, the antiquities ministry has said.The find could be a boon for Egypt’s ailing tourism industry, which has suffered a series of setbacks since the uprising that toppled the autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011, but remains a vital source of foreign currency. Continue reading...

Final-stage results dash hopes that solanezumab, an injectable antibody, would provide treatment breakthroughA drug that was seen as a strong contender to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease has failed to deliver in the final stage of clinical trials.

These exhibitions are worth a visit if you have an interest in science, technology and medicine – and their links to history and artThis autumn, and running into the new year, there are three free exhibitions worth catching. Each explores the history of science, technology or medicine in different ways, linking them to art, literature and popular, high or alternate cultures.Because I live in London, all three are in the south east. Please feel free to add your recommendations in the comments. Among permanent displays that I’ve seen this year, I recommend: the newly refurbished science and technology galleries at the National Museum of Scotland, the quirky fascination of Whitby Museum (where else do you get to see a replica leech-powered Tempest Prognosticator alongside displays of corals and exquisitely worked jet?) and the nearby gem of the Captain Cook Museum. Continue reading...

Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries“Toxic” is a potent word. It sounds like something dangerous dripping in a lab. By definition, to be toxic is to have the ability to cause harm, and it’s a term we often ascribe to human behaviour. We all have the ability to cause harm to each other; tangible and abstract, visible and invisible. But what makes a person toxic? A flesh-and-bones poison?We could say that it’s acts of abuse, bigotry, bitching, spitefulness, selfishness, lying, gaslighting or an absence of empathy: all types of behaviour that cause pain. More generally, a person’s apparent poisoning of “everything they touch” – their romantic relationships, friendships, work relationships – in a way they don’t seem to understand. Continue reading...

There’s beauty in simplicity. For space scientist and Sky At Night host Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, there’s nothing more beautiful than the way that Einstein’s theory of special relativity unlocks our understanding of how energy, mass and the speed of light work in the universe

Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding as the president-elect seeks to shift focus away from home in favor of deep space explorationDonald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on “politicized science”, his senior adviser on issues relating to the space agency has said.Nasa’s Earth science division is set to be stripped of funding in favor of exploration of deep space, with the president-elect having set a goal during the campaign to explore the entire solar system by the end of the century. Continue reading...

From watching lightning storms to giving the Vulcan salute over Boston, Nasa astronaut Terry Virts on his 200 days floating through the cosmosThe space suit is only a few layers of plastic and rubberised metallic material. There’s a very thin plastic shield covering your face, a few millimetres thick: that’s your visor. Between your body and the other side of that plastic visor is instant death.It’s an amazing experience, outside in the cosmos. Continue reading...

Preteen behavioural problems less likely in children with confident fathers who embrace parenthood, suggest researchersChildren of confident fathers who embrace parenthood are less likely to show behavioural problems before their teenage years, researchers have found.A new study suggests that a man’s attitudes towards fatherhood soon after his child’s birth, as well as his feelings of security as a father and partner, are more important than his involvement in childcare and household chores when it came to influencing a child’s later behaviour. Continue reading...

Honestly, these cryonics stories are driving me mad (Report, 18 November). As someone with terminal cancer (and ignoring the fact that I find the description in your articles of people like myself as “cancer victims” to be teeth-grindingly irritating) I feel everyone is ignoring the fact that a young woman looked into her future and saw the denial of everything she was promised. She was denied boyfriends, university, a job, marriage, children, life… and she was not ready to give up on those promises. She didn’t want to die. None of us does. I’m grateful that the judge had the good sense to realise this was not about whether cryonics worked, but her own hopes for the future. Reading some pieces lately it seems that while we’ll arrange bungee-jumping days out for the terminally ill, how one disposes of one’s own corpse is a step too far in giving the dying what they’re asking for.

News of the British teenager who wanted to be cryogenically frozen shed light on a practice that exists largely under the radar. Murray Ballard’s photographs give a rare insight into the processMore than a decade ago, I interviewed a visionary architect named Stephen Valentine about an ambitious project he had designed called Timeship. A vast circular edifice, laden with geometrical and symbolic meaning, it was to be a world centre for research into cryonics – the practice of preserving people at low temperature after their death – as well as a repository for up to 10,000 bodies, stem cells, organs and other genetic material. Valentine called it the “Fort Knox of biological material” and “a Noah’s Ark to the future”. But 12 years on, they have only just found a site for Timeship, in Texas, which suggests it could be a while before it ever materialises. Then again, its clients are in no particular hurry, nor any position to care whether or not it gets built at all. Continue reading...

Trial will attempt to change levels of proteins in older blood, believed to hamper growth and maintenance of healthy tissuesIn what could be a fresh chapter in the never-ending story of the search for eternal youth, scientists are to tinker with people’s blood in the hope of slowing down the ageing process and preventing age-related diseases.Researchers in California plan to launch a clinical trial of the radical – and highly experimental – approach in the next six months, after a small study in mice found the treatment had promise.

The 95% complete composite skeleton of extinct bird constructed by an enthusiast who bought bones from private collectionsThe first near-complete skeleton of a dodo bird to come up for sale in nearly 100 years has fetched £346,300 at auction.The 95% complete skeleton was painstakingly constructed by a man who started buying bones from private collections and auctions in the 1970s. Continue reading...

Vesuvius among the stars in upcoming show at library in Oxford that traces the sometimes fatal allure of volcanoesScorched papyrus scrolls, which survived Vesuvius’s 79 AD explosion that destroyed the Roman towns of Pompeii and Herculaneum, will be among the star objects in an volcanic exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford next year.

Stunting, death and malnutrition: why contaminated water has far more serious effects than the odd bout of diarrhoeaAt the start of this year, the UN recognised sanitation as a universal human right. The Sustainable Development Goals aim to achieve global sanitation by 2030. But despite these grand ambitions, and a hard-working WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) development sector, 2.4 billion people around the world still don’t have access to a proper toilet.When we think of poor sanitation, thoughts usually turn to diarrhoea. If you start off healthy, and have the means to prevent dehydration, it’s not usually life threatening. But more than half a million under fives died from diarrhoea in 2013, with around 314,000 deaths directly attributable to poor WASH. And for people continuously exposed to a faecally-contaminated environment, the lack of a toilet can have far-reaching effects.

Danish and US researchers say warmer air and sea surface could lead to record lows of sea ice at north pole next yearThe Arctic is experiencing extraordinarily hot sea surface and air temperatures, which are stopping ice forming and could lead to record lows of sea ice at the north pole next year, according to scientists.Danish and US researchers monitoring satellites and Arctic weather stations are surprised and alarmed by air temperatures peaking at what they say is an unheard-of 20C higher than normal for the time of year. In addition, sea temperatures averaging nearly 4C higher than usual in October and November. Continue reading...

Based on over 150 photographs taken by British astronaut Tim Peake, the book documents his six months on the International Space Station Continue reading...

Matter as we know it accounts for less than 5% of the known universe - the rest remains something of a mysterySubscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud

The Navier-Stokes equations explore how all fluids behave, from liquids and gases to weather systems and galaxies. For Dr Hannah Fry they are the perfect example of how powerful mathematics can be when it comes to unlocking the romance of nature

Ants on the Pacific islands observed carefully sowing and fertilising seeds of at least six types of plant as part of a relationship that reaches back 3m yearsAnts found in the Pacific islands of Fiji behave as miniature farmers, carefully sowing and fertilising the seeds of at least six types of plant, a study has said.

British researchers say 1% at risk of heart failure under abnormal stress, such as pregnancy or alcoholismOne in every 100 healthy people carry a faulty gene that could trigger a dangerous heart condition, scientists have found. Researchers at Imperial College London and the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre say 1% of the population are at risk from heart failure when the organ is placed under abnormal stress – such as through pregnancy or alcoholism – even if they appear otherwise healthy.

Researchers able to reduce anxieties without asking people to think about them consciously, making it more appealing than current therapiesScientists have raised hopes for a radical new therapy for phobias and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with a procedure that can dampen down fears linked to painful memories.The advance holds particular promise for patients because in early tests, researchers found they could reduce anxieties triggered by specific memories without asking people to think about them consciously.

The answer to today’s cake puzzlesEarlier today I set you the following three puzzles:1.You have a square cake, and four friends. How do you divide the cake into five slices of equal size? Each slice must be slice-like, meaning that the knife cuts vertically and the tip of each slice is at the centre of the cake. You have no ruler or tape measure, but you can use the horizontal grid here. Continue reading...

Device is more accurate than current tests, and uses saliva to reveal levels of cocaine in drivers’ systemsScientists have developed a new roadside test for cocaine in an effort to improve driver safety.The device is an improvement on current tests, avoiding the problem of false positives, and can offer insights into how much of the drug drivers have taken. Continue reading...

A bake off for the brainUpdate: solution’s now up.Hi guzzlersTo celebrate my birthday this week I thought I’d serve up three cake-based puzzles. Ent-icing! No soggy cerebellums please. Ready. Steady. THINK Continue reading...

The concept of beauty underpins how mathematicians solve quantum theory or describe gravity. From E=mc² to string theory, mathematical beauty has led physicists to draw up some of the most compelling descriptions of reality. ‘Beauty is the torch you hold up in the belief that it will lead you to truth in the end,’ Sir Michael Atiyah says.Plus, watch mathematicians Maggie Aderin-Pocock, Marcus du Sautoy and Hannah Fry talk about their favourite equationPaul Dirac had an eye for beauty. In one essay, from May 1963, the British Nobel laureate referred to beauty nine times. It makes four appearances in four consecutive sentences. In the article he painted a picture of how physicists saw nature. But the word beauty never defined a sunset, nor a flower, or nature in any traditional sense. Dirac was talking quantum theory and gravity. The beauty lay in the mathematics.

The Central Otago region, best known for pinot noir and adventure sports, has become a target for letterbox drug deliveries to unoccupied holiday homesDrugs are being mailed to the letterboxes of unoccupied holiday homes in New Zealand’s deep south as methamphetamine use in the country’s peaceful and picturesque Central Otago district increases.The region in the southern south island, which is best known for its pinot noir vineyards and adventure sports, is a tourist mecca for foreigners and locals. Continue reading...

Curtin University’s desert fireball network tracks down 1.15kg meteorite that fell hundreds of kilometres north-east of PerthScientists have recovered a freshly fallen meteorite from a farm several hundred kilometres north-east of Perth.Members of Curtin university’s desert fireball network team tracked the 1.15kg, squashed brick-shaped meteorite, which fell to Earth near Morawa just after 8pm on 31 October. Continue reading...

PM will unveil strategy to boost technology industry following anger from bosses at her administration’s approach to big businessTheresa May is to commit the UK to a £2bn annual fund for scientific research and development and a review of tax incentives for innovative corporations in an effort to boost the technology industry.In her first speech to the CBI’s annual conference, the prime minister will outline “the first steps in a modern, ambitious industrial strategy” following increasing anger from bosses at her administration’s approach towards big business. Continue reading...

It is 60 years since CP Snow’s essay The Two Cultures poured scorn on the literary world and welcomed the advance of science and technology. But in a fractured world, the humanities are key to an understanding of othersIn Denis Villeneuve’s lyrical sci-fi movie Arrival, a dozen mysterious vessels from an unknown planet appear on Earth. The military sends in the experts: a professor of physics and a professor of linguistics. Their task is to procure the answers to two questions: what do the aliens want? Where are they from? The physicist asserts that “the cornerstone of civilisation isn’t language, it’s science”. But the linguist is not so sure. She suggests that they might try talking to them. The film gently asserts the possibility that the humanities hold the key to understanding an alien culture – that speaking someone else’s language, literally and metaphorically, might be what’s required to avert violent disaster.Sixty years ago last month, CP Snow’s influential, much-debated essay The Two Cultures was published in the New Statesman. He wrote of a “traditional culture” that was “mainly literary”, behaving “like a state whose power is rapidly declining – standing on its precarious dignity ... too much on the defensive to show any generous imagination to the forces which must inevitably reshape it”. He characterised scientific culture, on the other hand, as “expansive, not restrictive, confident at the roots, the more confident after its bout of Oppenheimerian self-criticism, certain that history is on its side...” Continue reading...

Research into the controversial science of freezing humans is being stifled by close-minded scientific community, it is claimedVital interrogation of the science behind cryogenically freezing humans is being stifled because scientists fear being ostracised and ridiculed, according to a leading researcher in the field.

The government has a plan to help the people once known as the ‘squeezed-middle’ – it’s going to rebrand themName: Jam.Age: Four months old. Continue reading...

Those offering to cryogenically freeze people’s bodies are offering false hope to those frightened of dying, he saysThe father of a 14-year-old girl who was granted her dying wish to have her body cryogenically frozen has accused those who provide the service of taking advantage of vulnerable people.The teenager, known only as JS, decided before her death from cancer that she wanted her body to be preserved in the hope that she could be brought back to life at a later time. Her wish was upheld by the high court. Continue reading...

Clothing that can help people learn how to walk again after a stroke is the brainchild of a Harvard team reinventing the way we use robot technologyConor Walsh’s laboratory at Harvard University is not your everyday research centre. There are no bench-top centrifuges, no fume cupboards for removing noxious gases, no beakers or crucibles, no racks of test tubes and only a handful laptop computers. Instead, the place is dominated by clothing.On one side of the lab stands a group of mannequins dressed in T-shirts and black running trousers. Behind them, there are racks of sweatshirts and running shoes. On another wall of shelves, shorts and leggings have been carefully folded and labelled for different-size wearers. On my recent visit, one student was sewing a patch on a pair of slacks. Continue reading...

A new study links a dark outlook with greater risk of death from heart disease. But being grumpy might help you in old ageThe glass can be half-full, or it can be half-empty, depending on your outlook on life – or on which side of the bed you get out of any particular morning. But can optimism or indeed pessimism really affect your health?It’s been a bone of contention for many years, and the issue has spawned a plethora of self-help guides on how to be “positive”, especially in the face of serious illness. But the scientific evidence in support of a sunny disposition is contentious, contradictory and controversial. Continue reading...

What links anxiety and a good vocab? Take this personality test to find outAre you a natural worrier? To find out, simply take the following vocabulary test. Please define: (a) abrade, (b) abrogate, (c) ret, (d) pintle and (e) quaternary. The answers are at the bottom of the pageThese are some of the rarer words in English, turning up – on average – just once in every 50m words of speech. So if you get even just one or two right, your vocabulary is well above average. If you got them all right, it is absolutely stellar. Now for the bad news… Continue reading...

In the absence of religion, people find other ways to face death. This girl, and the mother who supported her fight, deserve nothing but sympathyThere is so much that is distressing about the case of JS, the 14-year-old girl with terminal cancer who wished to be cryonically preserved after death, in the hope that she could be revived when a cure for her rare illness had been discovered. Her mother supported the girl in her wishes; her estranged father did not. So, without the consent of both parents, the child had to apply to the courts for permission for the procedure to take place.Related: 14-year-old girl who died of cancer wins right to be cryogenically frozen Continue reading...

Man blames former partner for also stopping him seeing body before it was embalmed and frozenThe father of a 14-year-old girl whose remains have been frozen after a high court judge’s ruling said he last saw his daughter alive nine years ago and did not get to view her body before it was cryogenically preserved.The teenager, who died on 17 October, was terminally ill and had wanted her remains to be frozen in the hope she could be revived in the future. Continue reading...

350 corpses stored in liquid nitrogen await immortality. But detractors say the brain’s complexity is a major stumbling block“My primary strategy for living through the 21st century and beyond is not to die,” Ray Kurzweil, the futurologist and Google engineer has said. But in the event that plan A doesn’t work out, he has opted to have his body cryogenically preserved at the world’s largest facility, the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Arizona.Related: Father of cryogenically preserved girl did not see daughter before she died Continue reading...

Court decision to let dying teenager have body frozen could have unintended effect of giving people false hope, says professorCryonic freezing companies should be banned from marketing the technique to vulnerable people, according to a leading neuroscientist who said they were being sold a false hope that freezing their bodies would allow them to be brought back to life in the future.Clive Coen, a professor of neuroscience at King’s College London, said the high court decision which allowed a dying 14-year-old girl to have her body cryogenically frozen could have the “unintended consequence … that a lot of people are going to think this is worth a punt”. Continue reading...

Dementia is now the commonest cause of death in England and Wales, and although Alzheimer’s was first identified more than a century ago, effective treatments have proved elusive. But progress may now be in sightRelated: Sea Hero Quest: the mobile phone game helping fight dementiaMost of us forget names, dates or places from time to time. But Hilary Doxford never did. While the rest of us smile about our common inadequacy, she knew she was experiencing a genuine malfunction of her high-performance brain. “I did have a really good memory and didn’t need to write things down,” she says. “And I used to be able to multiply two four-digit numbers together almost instantaneously.” But one day, she started getting the sums wrong. Continue reading...

If I said you had a beautiful body, would you ... freeze it after death and hope to be reanimated in the future? And does it really offer a chance to return from the dead? If you’re keen to try it, it might be worth considering that experts have raised the alarm over the declining effect of last-line antibiotics - you might be looking at a rather shorter second life than you’d hoped for. Still, a gene-editing breakthrough that has allowed scientists to restore sight to blind animals could in future be used to combat a range of devastating genetic diseases, so perhaps it’s worth a punt? Given that researchers have discovered that they can tell a frightening amount about you just from chemical traces on your mobile phone, maybe even cryogenics and reanimation will look old hat in a couple of years - will regeneration be possible one day? I’m privately hoping that when they wake me up in a thousand years, my first holiday will involve a dip in Pluto’s vast ocean. I reckon it’d be bracing enough to really blow those cobwebs away. Continue reading...

Researchers say bacteria naturally present on leaves grows much faster once bag is opened, even when kept in fridgeBroken leaves in bags of prepared salad can hugely increase the risk of salmonella, a study suggests.

From wild cats to catalogues to a fake apeman, a new show at the Wellcome Collection explores our attempts to explain the natural worldIf you have any interest in animals that aren’t humans, it is easy to find yourself sympathising with Rex Harrison as he struggles to communicate with a pushmi-pullyu in the 1967 film of Doctor Dolittle, then singing along as he dreams of not only talking to the creatures in his menagerie (“grunt and squeak and squawk with the animals”) but having them answer back.Related: 'Rogue taxidermy': a misunderstood ethical art form or the next hipster fad? Continue reading...

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says resistance of some strains of bacteria is growing

Sometimes, a tune can say so much more than an image or words. Here, we turn almost 150 years of global temperatures into music. The higher the temperature, the higher the pitch of the note. And the louder the note, the more carbon there is in the atmosphere Continue reading...

Judge backs UK mother in allowing body of teenage daughter, who died of cancer, to be preserved in US – a process her estranged father opposedA 14-year-old girl who said before dying of cancer that she wanted a chance to live longer has been allowed by the high court to have her body cryogenically frozen in the hope that she can be brought back to life at a later time.The court ruled that the teenager’s mother, who supported the girl’s wish to be cryogenically preserved, should be the only person allowed to make decisions about the disposal of her body. Her estranged father had initially opposed her wishes. Continue reading...

Peggy Whitson, 56, will also have clocked up the most total time in orbit of any US astronaut on return from International Space Station in six monthsA multinational crew including a US astronaut who is the oldest and most experienced woman to fly in space blasted off from Kazakhstan for a two-day journey to the International Space Station.The Russian Soyuz rocket carrying American Peggy Whitson, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on Thursday night local time.

While it used to be the stuff of science fiction, the technology behind the dream has advanced in recent yearsThe decision of a teenage girl to have her body cryogenically frozen in the hope of being reanimated by medical advances in the future is one with which many could sympathise. But does current evidence suggest the gamble will pay off, or does cryonics simply give desperate people false hope dressed up in the language of science?

Committee calls on government to offer an immediate commitment to EU scientists and engineers currently living and working in BritainEU researchers who have come to Britain must be allowed to stay, according to a cross-party group MPs who are calling on the government to offer an immediate commitment to those who have already made Britain their home.The MPs on the Commons science and technology committee want EU scientists and other researchers exempted from wider immigration controls that will be up for discussion in the UK’s negotiations with Europe over its departure from the union.